NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Aug 10
- President George W. Bush on Thursday evening named Dr. Leon Kass, a conservative
bioethicist at the University of Chicago, to lead a newly established presidential
council of researchers and ethicists that will monitor and report on stem
cell research conducted in the United States.

Kass' stance on other politically-charged
issues in research and medicine has been markedly conservative. He has
spoken out, for example, in favor of a ban on therapeutic cloning as opposed
to one that forbids only reproductive cloning. However, he told the Chicago
Tribune on Thursday night that the council will allow the stem cell debate
"to be developed and heard."

He said that the group's goal will
be "to develop at the highest level, the deepest and most comprehensive
understanding of the issues, and we are striving for wisdom, not just cleverness."

Kass, 62, holds a bachelor's degree
in biology and a medical degree from the University of Chicago, as well
as a PhD in biochemistry from Harvard University. He is a founding fellow
of the Hastings Center, a Garrison, New York-based bioethics institute,
and has been a member of the Medical Committee for Human Rights, the Federation
of American Scientists and the American Association for the Advancement
of Science.